COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Nov. 25, 2015 - PRLog -- The movie trailer is both hard-hitting and hilarious. Attack of the Zombie Shoppers shares a few seconds of a pointed South Park parody of the annual Black Friday celebration of overconsumption. It moves on to reality as clips from news stories remind of us of the hoards of shoppers who each year trample one another in the quest to grab “door-buster” deals.

The trailer is advertising what is becoming a Black Friday holiday tradition – a free global screening of the documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth. “This is one attack you want to avoid,” advises documentary filmmaker Dave Gardner. His film skewers wealthy societies for consuming more than the Earth can sustainably provide, generation after generation.

“We should be troubled by the annual ‘consumption watch,’ in which economists and newscasters hold vigil and await with bated breath the news that shoppers spent more money than the year before. Black Friday retail sales numbers actually measure how steep our over-consumption death spiral has become.”

Instead of joining the hordes, Gardner encourages family and friends to gather around what has become the “campfire” - the TV set, to share stories of community and sustainability, to get back in touch with what really matters in life. “Repeat after me,” Gardner counsels, “I am not a consumer, I am a human being.”

Every year on Black Friday, the filmmaker makes the GrowthBusters documentary available free all day. He curates a handful of short films to accompany the documentary. “We put together a few relevant films addressing the existential crises of our time – overshoot, overpopulation and overconsumption. Rather than depress, most of these short films are very amusing. But the intent, Gardner advises, is to provoke meaningful family discussion following the screening.

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth explores cultural obsessions with consumerism and economic and population growth, and their role in today’s major environmental crises. The film’s premise is perpetual economic growth is impossible, and in fact physical limits to growth are at the root of the ongoing economic malaise. In the film, environmental author and activist Bill McKibben notes, “Human beings have used more natural resources since the end of world war II than in all of human history before.” McKibben joins Dennis Meadows, William Rees, Gus Speth, Robert Engelman, Herman Daly, Juliet Schor and other respected luminaries in the film.

GrowthBusters director Gardner insists, “We cannot shop our way out of this economic crisis. It’s time to realize we’ve outgrown the planet. The planet is saying, ‘enough.’ We need to transition to a steady state economy focused on sufficiency rather than more, more, more.”

Gardner admits this is a huge culture-shift, to stop measuring success by ever-increasing GDP, six-digit incomes, and trophy homes with luxury autos in 4-car garages. “This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced,” he notes, “but if we can’t get unhooked from growth addiction we face likely collapse of our civilization.”

GrowthBusters premiered November 2, 2011 in Washington DC to a packed house. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, declared, “This could be the most important film ever made.” GrowthBusters is available year-round directly to the public for purchase or rental at the film’s website, www.growthbusters.org. Sustainability advocates around the world buy the film and organize community screenings and house parties.

GrowthBusters is a non-profit, public education project of Citizen-Powered Media.